A Glimpse of Possibility
After passing the Jeff Origin test, while having lunch with Victor, I began to ask him about the pure white room.
"Victor."
"What?"
"Who made that white room?"
"Mary."
"Mary did...?"
Victor nodded, moving his fork. A large chicken breast sat on his lunch tray.
"What is Mary's ability?"
Victor chewed for a moment before answering my question.
"Possibility."
"Huh? Possibility?"
"She said it's the ability to see possibilities."
My mouth fell open in awe at Victor's words. The ability to see possibilities. Isn't that basically precognition—the power to see the future? I pictured Mary, wearing her white lab coat and sporting her usual faint smile.
"Did Mary imbue that room with her ability?"
"You could say that."
I clutched my pounding chest. The ability to foresee the future was incredibly rare. Precognitive espers were even harder to find than those with warp or teleportation abilities.
How is that room structured? I fell into deep thought, lightly twirling the knife in my hand. She definitely couldn't have made it alone. There was a high probability that someone with an illusion-type ability had also participated in its creation. I wanted to see it. I wanted to tear down the room's structure and examine every single part of it.
"Jeff, try this."
Unlike my mind, which was lost in thought, my body reacted naturally to Shine's voice. A small fork was held out in front of my mouth. A tender, juicy piece of steak resting on the fork was gently pushed past my lips.
"Mmh."
I chewed and swallowed the steak. Watching me, Shine smiled brightly and went back to cutting the next piece of meat.
"Jeff."
"Yeah?"
"Aren't you going to feed me?"
At Shine's words, I poked a piece of pork cutlet on my plate with my fork and held it out to her. She gave a satisfied smile and opened her mouth wide.
Shine's mouth enveloped the fork. My eyes were glued to her chewing lips. I could feel the movement of her tongue traveling up the fork and into my hand. As I froze in embarrassment, Shine looked at me with a suggestive smile.
"Is... is it that good...?"
Shine nodded and let go of the fork. Her soft tongue peeked out from between her slowly parting lips, giving the retreating fork a gentle lick. It was supposed to be just a simple meal, but for some reason, my face felt incredibly hot. I quickly stabbed some salad with my fork and stuffed it into my mouth. My face flushed even redder.
After finishing lunch, we headed downstairs to find Amy. The lab where support items were made was on the floor right below us. Amy was in Mary's lab.
"Amy!"
The moment I spotted Amy, I ran over and threw my arms around her.
"Jeff?"
Amy looked surprised, as if she hadn't expected us to visit without calling first. Lifting me up, Amy turned around.
"The kids both passed."
With those words, Victor walked over to a chair in the corner and slumped into it. His exhausted face made him look like an office worker returning home after a grueling shift of overtime. Was taking care of us really that exhausting?
"Shine and Jeff both passed?"
"Yes!"
"Mhm."
"Good job."
Amy set me down on the floor and patted both my head and Shine's. As Amy's hand gently ruffled my hair, a natural smile spread across my face.
"What did you see inside?"
"I saw a tall woman, just like you, Amy."
In response to Amy's question, I told her everything I had seen inside. Amy listened to my story, stroking her chin and nodding.
"I see."
"I saw a giant tower."
Shine also shared what she had seen in the room with Amy. It wasn't much different from what she had told Victor earlier. Shine omitted the part about having a conversation with someone.
"Amy, what exactly was it that we saw inside?"
"Hmm... Mary would know more about that than I do."
Saying so, Amy dragged Mary over and sat her down in front of Shine and me. Mary, who had been organizing documents, looked around with a dazed expression.
"What's going on...?"
"Explain that room to the kids."
At Amy's request, Mary looked at Shine and me. Our eyes met across the small desk. I looked up at Mary, my eyes sparkling. She was a genius.
"Mary!"
"Yes?"
"Is it true that you designed and built that room?"
Mary scratched her head at my question and replied, "Yeah. I did make it."
"That is absolutely amazing!"
"Is it...?"
"Yes! How could you make something like that? It's only been a little over three years since the government started researching the artificial replication of abilities!"
I shouted, completely swept up in excitement. Before I had ended up under Dr. Hebrum, the artificial replication of supernatural abilities was exactly what I had been researching. The ultimate goal of the research I had aimed for was right here before my eyes—how could I not be excited? Even though I had to abandon all my research back then due to a lack of funding.
As I shouted in excitement, Mary gave an awkward smile and replied, "You're very smart, Jeff."
Only then did I realize how loud my voice had gotten, and I quickly covered my mouth. Everyone in Mary's lab was staring at me.
"Those are too many difficult words for me."
Shine, who was sitting next to me, muttered softly.
"How do you know about that, Jeff?"
"Huh...? Well, in the past..."
I groped through my hazy memories. In the past...?
"Jeff."
"Yes?"
"An older sister has to be superior to her younger sister."
Shine said, grabbing my hand.
"An older sister must always be smarter than her younger sister."
I wiggled my hand, trying to break free from Shine's grip, but she refused to let go. Flustered, I cast a pleading look at Amy for help, but she only waved back with a gentle smile.
"Hey... Shine!"
"Jeff. Just bear with me until then."
Shine said, cupping my cheeks to lock my gaze onto hers. Her eyes, which had turned pitch black, resembled the darkness that had dyed the white room black.
"Okay..."
I nodded blankly. My thoughts grew sluggish and heavy. The excitement that had filled my mind vanished, leaving no trace of its cause.
"Well, then. I guess you don't have any more questions?"
I blinked blankly. I couldn't remember what I had been doing just a moment ago.
"Pardon?"
"I'm asking if you have any more questions about that room."
I tilted my head at Mary's words.
"The room?"
"Yes. Didn't you say you were curious about the room you took your test in?"
Only then did I nod slowly. I did have questions. The problem was, I couldn't remember exactly what they were.
"Is everything we saw in there destined to happen in the future?"
It was Shine who asked first, beating me to it.
"No. It's merely one of many possibilities. Nothing is absolute."
"Then, do we have to work hard to increase the chances of that possibility happening?"
"You could say that."
"Hmm..."
"I guess Shine was satisfied with what she saw?"
"Yes. I really hope it turns out that way."
"You must have observed a pretty good possibility then."
"A good possibility...?"
"The possibilities my ability shows are always completely random. That's why it sometimes shows meaningless things, like Rain fighting sharks or Victor getting his driver's license."
"How is the possibility we see in that room related to the test?"
"It's simply a test of mental strength. Someone with strong mental fortitude can easily break out of the illusions shown by the room."
"Then wouldn't it have been better to just show normal illusions?"
"But then it wouldn't feel real enough."
Shine blinked, seemingly unable to understand Mary's explanation. I didn't fully grasp their conversation either. I was just in awe of Shine, who was so much smarter than me.
"The content shown by an illusion ability is very limited. At most, it's just the imagination of the user. But what if it's used in tandem with my ability, which shows possibilities?"
"I see..."
"Is that all you wanted to know?"
"You have an incredibly amazing ability, Mary."
"It's not that amazing."
"Why? It's an ability to see the future."
"Strictly speaking, it's not the future. It's just one of many possibilities. There is a massive difference between acting while knowing the future and acting without knowing it. The actions resulting from that knowledge affect the possibility you saw, ultimately causing that possibility to disappear."
"Then it's a useless ability in the end..."
"That depends on how you look at it."
Shine lowered her head, seemingly lost in thought at Mary's answer. Too many difficult concepts had flown by in an instant. Did Shine understand everything Mary said?
"I think I should become close friends with Mary."
After a long silence, Shine nodded and spoke. Seeing her reach out her hand to offer a handshake, it seemed Shine had taken a liking to Mary. Seeing the two of them getting along so well, I gently reached out and took Shine's hand.
"Do you have any more questions, Jeff?"
"No."
With that, Mary turned back to her desk, which was piled high with documents. Amy sat down in the seat Mary had vacated, smiling at us.
"Amy, what did you see in that room?"
I was curious about the possibility Amy had seen. What could she have possibly witnessed?
"I saw an incredibly massive tower."
"A tower?"
"Yes. Perhaps it was the same tower Shine saw?"
Shine said she had seen a giant tower in that room. Since Amy also said she saw a giant tower, maybe they had both seen the same possibility? I felt envious of Shine and Amy. I wanted to see this tower they spoke of, too.
"I want to see that tower too."
"I'll show it to you later, Jeff."
It was Shine who answered me. The grip on my hand tightened. Her hand squeezed mine so tightly, as if she would never let go, making it feel a little suffocating.
"Okay."
I turned to look at Rain, recalling what she had seen. She said she fought giant sharks with an umbrella, right? What kind of possibility could have led Rain to fight sharks?
"Mary!"
"Yes, Lady Rain."
"My umbrella is finished, right?"
At Rain's question, Mary silently pointed to a corner of the room. At the end of her finger sat a beautiful yellow umbrella. Rain's eyes sparkled as she dashed toward it.
Pitter-patter— the sound of her tiny footsteps echoed through the lab.
Thud!
Rain, who had been running so well, tripped and faceplanted onto the floor.